Dude, I'm sorry but you are clueless. You need to follow another sport, because you obviously don't understand football. Signing the players Mac did was NOT a mistake. To begin with, Mac had to spend a lot of money last year in FA. It gave us instant respectability and started establishing a winning culture. Would you have been happy with another 4-12 record last year or worse? Well, if he hadn't signed those older, better vets, the Jets very well could have been a 4 win team (or less) for the next several years. Few fans would have been willing to do that and would have been calling fo Mac and Bowles to be fired, and then we'd be starting all over again. No NFL team does the old-fashioned 5-year rebuild. They try to retool on the fly. They try to improve the team while becoming more respectable. The other thing is that with all the needs the Jets had it could have taken at least 3-5 years to build a solid, competitive roster if Mac used only the draft. He signed Carpenter and several players who were younger. He tried to sign others who decided to sign elsewhere. He can't force players to sign here, and he can't sign players who aren't there in FA. He can only try to get the best players he can that fit our systems and are the types of players the Jets want.
If you think that Mac is just trying to build the team through older FAs, you have no idea what you're talking about. If you actually think Mac is a good GM, then you'd KNOW that Mac is trying to build the team through the draft, but wants to make it competitive in the meantime and add veterans who can help mentor the youngsters. It wasn't a one-year plan. To say that his plan didn't work is idiotic and totally moronic. No one with half a brain thought Mac was going to turn the Jets into the SB champs in one offseason. Your thinking is mediocre, but I should have immediately known that looking at your username.
You can't really keep a ton of excellent players long-term. The NFL isn't built that way. You just gotta keep drafting well, sign good contracts and hit on a QB.
Very classy name calling. I have no problem with a quick re-build if you have the pieces in place, but we don't. There is no stability if you don't have a QB, and we don't have one. There is so little margin for error in the NFL without a good QB. We weren't even that bad at 21 of the 22 starting positions in the league last season, but Fitz is not a QB that can lead us to anything significant. We need to quit wasting our time, and thinking that strategy works. We put all this money into signing players, all these trades, all these veterans, it didn't work. Why? We didn't have a QB. Without one, there's no margin for error. By the way, the Raiders are in the midst of a great rebuild. They've gotten players like Carr, Mack, Cooper through the draft in the last few years. I'd 100% rather be in their position with those players than what we currently have.
Do you not realize that we don't have a QB? We aren't going to be competitive this year. Why? There's no QB. Last season should've shown all of you have much we really need that QB before we can talk about being competitive. I hope a lot of you didn't take out of last season that we can be like Denver with a nearly perfect team and no QB. Instead, you should've taken out of the season that we were pretty good, but were missing a high level player at the most important position in the sport. There's no way around the need for a QB. Since we aren't getting the level one that we need in free agency, drafting a high level one after the first round is nearly impossible and we don't have one on the roster, the only way we will become competitive again is by tanking for at least one season to get the QB, and then building it back up with free agents, and trades, and good draft picks after that.
The OP neglects to take one thing into account. That is, the market this team plays in. This isn't San Diego or Kansas City or Indianapolis. This is New York. This is the Tri state where you don't get forever to rebuild or retool or any other descriptor you can use for mediocrity. Make no mistake, just like every other GM Mac has a timetable to turn the Jets into contenders. Idzik would have had the same opportunity but f'd it up by how he went about it. Mac does not have the luxury of gutting the roster and starting over via the draft. PSL's makes that scenario impossible to sell to the fanbase. Mediocrity otoh sells promise and potential. The hope of a brighter better day in the near future. You're right about this team being mediocre right now. It keeps the fans engaged and given the flux of NFL fortunes, we might just luck up one day soon. Gotta work within the limits OP. Won't last long here in the tri state area if you don't...
We need a QB, but tanking isn't the way to get one. Denver signed Peyton Manning in free agency. Arizona traded for Carson Palmer. Seattle drafted Russell Wilson in the third round. It's great if you get a top pick and use it on a top QB, but there are other ways to get the top QB, and a QB taken with a top few pick can easily be a bust. Which means intentionally setting up your team to fail is not the way to go.
Nah we got it right. Continue to stay competitive, instill that culture. Last thing you want to do is rebuild completely. No player wants to be part of a losing culture
Right on the money. Most of the starting QB's in the league right now fell into their teams lap. Even the ones that were drafted high (Rivers, Roethlisberger, Luck, Flacco etc) Trading up and giving up assets for one is how teams get in trouble and also why the same franchises are always looking for that franchise QB. Its a vicious circle.
5 years is too long for NY but 3 years is definitely doable. Idzik started a rebuild 3 years. He had the perfect plan but failed in the execution. Had he hit on his choices he'd still have a job and we would be transitioning from the end of a rebuild to the beginning of a long run of being in contention with roster driven by a young inexpensive core. Because he failed so miserably, his successor Mac was pretty much forced to "retool" as you call it. There's no way a franchise in NY could deal with consecutive rebuilds.
At the end of the day it always comes down drafting and player evaluation. That's the great equalizer or differentiator. If Geno turned to what Carr is now, Petty to Wilson, Milliner to Peters, Hill to Jefferies…etc we wouldn't be discussing "rebuilding" vs. "retooling" vs. whatever. I consider myself somewhat of a quasi-draftnik. I'm not living a double life as a GM on the side like some on the Draft board but I try to watch a few college games now and then so I'm not totally oblivious when the draft comes around. I can't remember the last time in recent memory when I've felt more than just lukewarm, at best, about a Jets' draft class. Yet, I can remember the draft concluding being envious about the classes of other teams like the Raiders and Jags in recent years. Is it just a coincidence that they appear to be teams on the rise? I know, or maybe it's hope, that I don't know more than what our highly paid professionals do. Quinn as HC, Shanahan as OC accd to this report Post by: legler82, Jan 9, 2015 in forum: New York Jets
So we went from "win now team", pay everybody to "cut this shit apart to get top pick". Fucking offseason....
Based on your response, I think that you and I are saying the same thing, just using the word "rebuild" differently. Do I think we're doing a traditional "rebuild" where it's a 5-year plan, the team is built primarily through the draft, they usually play the young players over vets, let them take their lumps and learn, and the losses often pile up? No. But I don't know of a single NFL that is doing that or has done that any time recently. I think "rebuilds" have evolved. While GMs still seek to turn over the roster and upgrade the talent, they now seek to remain as competitive as possible so the losses don't pile up. They do it with a mixture of draft picks and FAs, and they often play the veterans and let the young players sit for a year or so and learn from the vets. That's what I believe Mac is doing. The difference as I see it between a "rebuild" and a "retool" is that the former will take longer because a greater number of players need to be replaced and positions upgraded before the team can be a legit contender for the Lombardi Trophy, whereas with the latter, only a few players or positions need to be upgraded improved before the team is ready to be truly competitive. Both of these are in contrast to a team that is "all in" to win in that year or is in "win now" mode, where the GM thinks the team is perhaps only a player or two away or is already set to make a run. In that scenario, much less attention is given to the team's long term success, and the focus is on almost exclusively on winning now. Teams in that mode often draft for need rather than BPA, and often may trade away draft picks to move up for that one or two players they think can put them over the top, or trade high draft picks for veterans.
So much shitpost, so little time! Rebuilding is basically a myth at this point. Legler has it right. Directional and competent talent evaluation plus strategic retooling is what the successful teams do, the rest try to build a blueprint based on their own half-competence and basically fail. We still don't know if Macc makes the grade, but at least he isn't putting up a dog and pony show to sell seats.
What do you think rebuilding is exactly?Cut the entire roster except young players?You sound annoying,We went from 4-12 to 10-6 and we are heading in the wrong direction?The mods should make an "are you sure?" button before people decide to post there threads,we haven't even drafted yet there's gonna be a whole new group of younger players on the roster by the end of next week.
In the NFL you have to make the best team possible each year first, with an eye for the future second.....in that order GM's and coaches are on a very short leash and need results to keep their jobs, Fans are too impatient, owners wanna sell tickets, and the league is set up for each team to be atleast competitive every season At this point, as long as you have average talent and luck with injuries, you will always be competing for atleast a playoff spot. You can't sit around waiting for a franchise QB....gotta try to put out the best you can. This isn't the NBA or MLB, no one has time for a strict rebuild in the NFL. Idzik tried and his ass was shipped out immediately
If it were so easy to find a franchise QB then guys Brian Hoyer and TJ Yates would not be starting in this league. There are what 10-15. "Franchise QBs" in a 32 team league. They don't grow on trees.